She paused for a second, making
a supreme effort, while every impulse fought in mad tumult within
her, crying to her to yield. Then, with a lightning twist of the
hand she turned the key and pulled it from the lock. For an
instant she held it in her hand, then with a half-strangled sound
she thrust it deep into her bosom.
Her eyes shone like flames in her white face as she turned back to
him. "Perhaps you will believe me--now!" she said.
He took a single step forward and caught, her by the wrists.
"Woman!" he said. "Do you know what you are doing?"
The passion that blazed in his look appalled her. Yet some strange
force within her awoke as it were in answer to her need. She flung
fear aside. She had done the only thing possible, and she would
not look back.
"You must believe me--now!" she panted. "You do believe me!"
His hold became a grip, merciless, fierce, tightening upon her like
a dosing trap. "Why should I believe you?" he said, and there was
that in his voice that was harder to bear than his look. "Have I
any special reason for believing you? Have you ever given me one?"
"You know me," she said, with a sinking heart.
He uttered a scoffing sound too bitter to be called a laugh. "Do I
know you? Have I ever been as near to you as this devil who has
made himself notorious with Kaffir women for as long as he has been
out here?"
She flinched momentarily from the stark cruelty of his words.
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